I’m new here… and its a bit disturbing…

The internet is very good at providing a cocoon of sameness. Google etal all have algorithms that recognize patterns in your online behavior. And they know if you are a liberal, for example. They then provide that sort of thing to you when you search.

This makes being online very very much more comfortable.

On tumblr, I started by following the people I met on Twitter. And then I followed the people those people followed and the people those people followed. And so on.

What I essentially did was create my own little algorithm of like minded people. As a result, a disproportionate number of the people I follow on tumblr are socially liberal. None are overtly religious.

I’m slowly migrating away from tumblr because its not supporting commenting and its become less enjoyable.

So I’m slowly meeting new people over here. But as I look about at the various blogs on here, I find I’m definitely outside the liberal zone I’m used to. There are blogs on here that make me cringe. I obviously don’t follow them, but I’m finding the search for community on wordpress is not as obvious or as easy to find.

And then there is the question of the like minded cocoon in the first place. Is it a good thing? Its comfortable. There is NO doubt about that. But is it good? Probably not.

On the other hand, my mental well being is not so great. And reading things that upset me, things that me cringe like hate and bigotry are not things that help the promote a healthy state of my mind.

So. Here I sit, a little bit disturbed about the neighborhood and wondering if its worth the effort to forage forward to find new friends.

Having the same here, I’m hoping that after writing and posting (making sure I tag them) hoping that I’ll get into the (algo)rythym so that I find the like minded just as I did on tumblr. I did a lot of random searching on tumblr though and was well aware of the other “bubbles”, I tried to steer clear but there were a random few that I ended up following…same as tumblr, to find the like minded find the tumblr people, then see who liked their posts then go check them out? I’m glad you’re here, I like being able to comment again!! 🙂

As others have said – totally worth digging. I have made some of the best friends by randomly searching the tags, and reading posts by total strangers. Having your mindset challenged is good – it forces you to continually re-evaluate what you think about the world, and the people in it.